Bates said that watching movies often improves vision, and I have found the same to be true of watching television. One activity that dramatically improves my vision every time is watching football on TV. Any kind of TV with a lot of action is good, but I like football. HOWEVER, you have to do it the right way. Here's what that means:
1. You have to remind yourself of the feeling of not straining. One good way is intentionally trying to what's on the TV "worse." Suppose you see a blob of red (which you know is Alex Smith) running across the screen. Instead of trying to see Alex Smith running across the screen, rather, remember something else inside your head for an instant. (Doesn't have to be football-related. It could be your cat. Just don't make an effort to remember your cat--rather, merely consider letting the memory of your cat enter your consciousness for a split-second). Or, perhaps it's easier at this moment to think about Alex Smith moving across the screen, but place the image inside your head, and don't worry about how vivid or "correct" the image is. Instead, think of it as "allowing" yourself to remember Alex Smith running across the screen. If you have trouble imagining Alex Smith, immediately let it go and allow your attention to shift to something else (e.g., a white blob that might be a yardline).
2. When done correctly, you may perceive that you're "defocusing," or rather, focusing at a distance that is closer to you rather than focusing on the distance of the TV (maybe this phenomenon is only true for myopes like me), and it will feel very, very wrong. However, this is a false perception -- you're actually using your eyes more correctly, but it just feels totally different from what you're used to. Don't give up now by pushing your eyes out and grabbing onto Alex Smith in your usual way. Instead, allow yourself to continue feeling kind of uncomfortable, and see where it takes you.
Also, because you lack central fixation, you'll notice that you see a largish area roughly equally not well. Acknowledge this phenomeon, but try not to worry about it. Instead, continue shifting your attention and imagining the players and other objects moving "inside" your mental picture of the game.
3. Very important: try not to move your eyes intentionally. Instead, merely imagine the moving bits of color inside your mental picture of the football game. It will feel wrong, because you'll perceive that you're not moving your eyes at all (and you'll fear that you're not shifting). This is also a false perception. In fact, when you feel like you're moving your eyes the least, you're actually using your eyes much more correctly than your usual habit. In fact, you ARE shifting, just not in your usual way. Another person observing your eyes at this moment will actually see that you're shifting.
4. You can shift your attention to other things besides what's on the TV, like noticing feelings inside your body or noticing your breathing. You should be vaguely aware of the entire room in your peripheral vision moving around on its own. When your attention tracks Alex Smith running toward the right, the edge of the TV screen and the rest of the room move oppositionally to the left. When your attention tracks the football falling earthward during a fieldgoal attempt, the TV screen and the whole room move oppositionally upward. Actually, it's safe to say that if you can't immediately draw your attention to the fact of this peripheral movement, you're doing things wrong. You don't have to worry about consciously noticing the direction of the movement at all moments, but you should be able to become aware of it at any time.
Sometimes I'll start out watching a game that's kind of blurry, and paying attention to all of the above things, but after some time, I'll unconsciously transition to simply watching the game. The game will become clear without my even realizing it consciously, because I'm paying attention to the game, only in a way that's indescribably different to my usual way of paying attention to a game on TV.
I'm not sure if I explained this clearly at all. Maybe I'll add some clarifications at a later time. I'm also anticipating that some people will nominally agree with what I say and then add embellishments of their own that I'll disagree with, but such is life.
Watch football = improve vision....I don't know if my wife/kids are going to fall for this excuse. They always complain about me watching too much college football on Saturdays and NFL on Sundays.
I do have a question about item 2 when you mention focusing at distance closer than the tv. Normally, when you converge and focus your eyes on an object (a pencil you are holding in front of you), the images of objects behind it become double and unfocussed. Why do you think focusing closer is actually using your eyes more correctly? (Apparently for you, you've found that it helps your vision so you may have found something new and useful for vision improvement. I actually thought it was the opposite and that myopes should converge behind the object to trick the mind to relax the eye muscles because of the relationship between accommodation and convergence...but it didn't help me any.)
Very important: Don't intentionally try to converge near. When you imagine something without effort, the existing muscle strain in a myopic person may automatically cause her to converge for the nearpoint. It's not the correct way to see, but only by not trying to focus far are you not ADDING more strain, and only then can you let go of the existing strain.
Remember that sometimes vision gets worse momentarily before it gets much better. This is because when you have bad vision, you add even more strain in certain ways (e.g. squinting, or "projecting" your eyes into the distance in order to grab onto an object) to try to see better. The funny thing is that these additional strains actually work a little bit temporarily, although they make your vision worse in the long run. When you let go of the added strain, you may see double and be disturbed by other effects that make it seem like you're making vision worse. The key is not to try focusing for a particular distance. Your eyes will automatically be near-focused, but as they become more relaxed, the double image will automatically go away and your eyes will naturally become more far-focused on their own.
Like I said, it will initially feel like you're seeing the wrong way. You may feel "lazy" and feel kind of guilty or ashamed for doing things differengky from what you're "supposed to" do. These are irrational thoughts that crop up naturally in the course of vision improvement. Acknowledge these thoughts and consider the possibility that they are incorrect beliefs.
If your wife hates it when you watch too much sports, consider that you
can/should be applying the same vision techniques while you're taking out the garbage, doing the dishes, or clearing the garage.
Another way to get an understanding of what it means to add strain, try "flashing": close your eyes or, better yet, do palming for a while, and then open them for a splitsecond, with the only goal being to observe how your eyes feel different and "do" something as soon as you open them. It may feel like they're bulging and reaching out to grab the image. Do this often and eventually you'll get a feeling for how, even though your eyes are already under strain when shut, opening them causes you to add even more strain.
Then, observe how when you're watching football in this wrong-feeling (but actually more correct) way, your eyes actually feel more like how they feel when they're shut.
By the way, if you're not seeing much more clearly within 15-20 seconds of watching the game in this way, I either haven't explained myself well enough or you're doing something extraneous that I have no way of knowing about. These days I typically go within minutes from not being able to read the large numbers on players' jerseys during closeup shots to being able to read even the smallest letters on the banner placed at the bottom of the screen and being able to see the individual lacings on the ball.
Another great post, Sean. Just reading your post seems to give me a sense of relaxation.
Regarding the part where you consider the object you're paying attention to in your head, is this the same way that normal people read as well? I get the feeling it is, but I'm not sure, so I just wanted to make sure.
I think your third and fourth points are critical here. I have only rarely gotten to the point where I feel that my visual system is "clicking" and I have a vague feel for the effortlessness and how it contrasts with how I use my eyes normally. In particular, I just wanted to emphasize the point on "grabbing". It is extremely easy to be unaware of just how much "grabbing" one's eyes are doing. This is something that I will not EVER notice unless I ask myself if I am grabbing at objects with my eyes, and every time I ask that question, I find that I am.
The part on oppositional movement is also of interest. I have actually recently had a few moments where I noticed the periphery swinging; it's a pretty surreal feeling. It's worth mentioning that a trap I fall into often is that of trying to "create" the oppositional movement when it's not there. And while I can create the illusion of movement, it doesn't do anything for the eyes when I manufacture the movement. I guess this ties into #3 with intentional eye movement as well.
Final note: You mention flashing, which can help one feel the strain of grabbing. I want to add that the opposite is also possible. That is, it is also possible for one to "grab" with the eyes even more with the eyes closed. I say it's possible, because I am one of those people. I have no idea what the eyes are grabbing at, but it doesn't stop until I acknowledge it. In fact, I have found it quite instructional to flash and notice the different strains that exist with the eyes closed and with the eyes open.
Well, I don't watch TV at all, let alone football, and still found this post very helpful. Thank you Sean, and Pikachu, I agree completely about the grabbing behavior being almost automatic for me -- I have to keep checking whether I'm doing it, or am just "letting myself see" in a relaxed way. Recently the depth in the distance seems more apparent, and my close vision seems clearer: I am getting startling very clear unexpected flashes of objects a few inches away. However when I look more than a few feet away I am often still trying to see, thinking I have to work at it. Sean, I found your point about "de-focusing" or focusing closer than the object I want to see quite interesting. I've found myself doing this quite a bit, especially when driving, and when I catch myself doing it I always try to immediately push my eyes out to the distance (yes, strain) thinking I have to do that to see clearly. It's like I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar -- this behavior is wrong! Just thinking about this I can feel some alarm that I will "miss something" -- I know there is still a lot of anxiety in me about not being able to see well, or thinking I can't, even if the evidence shows the opposite. Thank you both -- this gives me a lot to play with.
My son is football mad and I like to watch it with him.
I have posted about this here too in the past. In my case what I call football is known to others as soccer. Watching football on the telly is something that always improves my sight and I expect to be able to follow the match from a distance and to be able to watch some of it very clearly.
In one of my earlier posts I described watching one match where I could see the team in white clearly but the team playing in the dark colour (red I think) were invisible.
This doesn't work anything like as well with rugby or Gaelic football, possibly because I don't have the same interest but more likely (in my opinion) because the camera shots of the play are kept at a steady distance (so the players look very small). In rugby and Gaelic the players appear larger and the camera zooms in much more.
You hit on the important think (again in my view) which is that you just look at the game because you enjoy it. I never give the slightest thought to movement. I'll keep an eye out for oppositional movement but I haven't noticed it before. Sometimes if the vision doesn't clear up (and my concern is more to see what is going on than to clear my vision, although the latter is the main reason I watch it) I rest my eyes on the tiny scores and time in the top left hand corner and look for detail. That usually does the job and it's back to the match. I think the perceived need to keep moving the eyes is a curse. (I think you say or imply this in your post.)
I don't find watching live games quite as effective, possibly because I'm standing and people around me are talking, but that too can be a big help in clearing the vision.
Just to clarify my last post, the small size of the soccer players on the screen is a big advantage.
Sorrisi once posted about being able to see the smaller letters on the chart clearly but having problems with the biggest letter (if I remember correctly).
To Nancy: good to hear from you. I have found that allowing yourself to be in the "defocused" state that feels like you're focusing for too near or seeing double is a prerequisite for letting go of the primary strain that makes you nearsighted. The primary strain that causes myopia tends to make your eyes turn inward, as though
you were reading a book (for example), and perhaps causes you to see double if you're looking at something at a farther distance. It takes a secondary strain to overcome this primary strain to make your eyes feel like they're focused and looking straightahead. Allowing yourself to be in the wrongfeeling "defocused" state is a very important aspect to letting go of the secondary strain, which is necessary before you can let go of the primary strain. If you maintain relaxed habits while in this "defocused state" (allowing things to move, noticng the action on the playing field if you're watching football, etc.), you'll find that the primary strain also releases on its own, and your eyes pretty quickly start feeling less defocused, accompanied by sudden vision improvement.
Note that this so-called "defocused" state is also the state that you tend to be in if you're looking at a blank wall or at a perfectly blue sky, on which there's nothing in particular to see and therefore nothing for your eyes to "grab onto." It takes a certain amount of courage to allow yourself to be in this state, because
it feels so wrong at first. I still can't really maintain this state when I'm talking to people (because I'm worried I'll look crosseyed) or when driving (I'm worried I'm not "paying attention" to the road). For now, I've written off trying to do much vision improvement or maintaining this state while driving, for safety
reasons. However, try walking around in a safe area without any motor traffic or obstacles while in this "defocused" state, all the while observing the ground swinging and moving oppositionally, and see where this takes you.
The key thought to remind yourself of over and over again is that the only reason why the "defocused" state feels so wrong is that you're finally not DOING the thing you usually do to "focus," and you have the incorrect thought that you need to do that thing to be paying attention to whatever you're looking at. On the contrary, you can pay attention to objects just as well or even better when you're in the wrongfeeling state: for people with normal sight, shifting focus to a new object is exactly the same as just having a thought about the object, and their eyes automatically shift to the correct spot. That's it. If you have poor vision, having a mere visual thought about an object in the periphery causes your eyes to shift in some manner, but not to the right spot. However, the mere act of doing this shift without adding effort (however misaimed it may be) causes a relaxation that improves your sight. <------ This point made in this paragraph is also really, really key. It seems really weird at first, but once you see your vision improve while paying attention to these things, it becomes self-evident.
The previous paragraph also clarifies why I put "defocused state" in quotation marks, because you're not really defocusing. I think David would describe the correct way to focus as "imagining details in the blur," though I disagree somewhat with his exposition of the idea.
To the other Sean: good to hear from you, too. I wholeheartedly agree that intentionally trying to move your eyes around mechanically, or consciously "targeting/tracking" the ball or players is absolutely the wrong approach. This technique only works if you're actually enjoying the game and your attention naturally follows whatever captures your interest. Doing this the correct way may give you the false perception that you're not moving your eyes at all, so it feels wrong at first.
This seems very interesting. I was trying it, but I have some questions.
1. should I remember the view from the near or should it be the view as if I was really looking into the distance (smaller)?
2. should it be only one (central) thing or the perifery too?
3 when I was doing it I felt like I was day dreaming ( feeling of not being here, looking nowhere and thinking about something else ) is it right? ??? because it didnt feel right
4. one last question : If I imagined a clear picture of a footballer on a blurry one on TV(outside my head), would it be straining?,
OK maybe I figured out where the mistake was. When you say remember it inside your head I imagined it physically in my head so I had that feeling of looking nowhere (or up)
Now I did the following : I closed my eyes and imagined in my mind eg. a cat 1 m in front of me.
When I opened my eyes I did the same...I remembered a cat 1 m in front of me in my mind and "looking" at it.
I must laugh at me now ;D ;D ;D because of all the funny things I´m doing to see better
This "defocused" viewing caught my attention because I previously posted about my monocular diplopia. Folks who responded thought it is due to astigmatism, but I feel differently. David posted a link to a paper (by Archer) which explained how myopic defocus (myopia without any astigmatism) causes diplopia. My question is: Do all/most near-sighted people have diplopia when looking in the distance (where their vision is defocused)?
I read your clarification and re-read your initial posts - they are excellent. I note that David has posted on his blog about not consciously moving the eyes.
Now I think back to my first clear flash when I just let go of everything in my eyes and face I remember my eyes seeming to cross and thinking it was very odd. Thanks for reminding me.
If you don't mind, could you attempt an explanation as to how you differ from imagining details in the blur, which you attribute to David (see your last post)? All clarification helps, I find.
Just reading your post seems to give me a sense of relaxation.
I was trying it, but I have some questions.